Trump can't block his critics on Twitter, judge rules

Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY, ruled that Trump'sTwitteraccount is a public forum.

"The president's practice of blocking critics on Twitter is pernicious and unconstitutional, and we hope this ruling will bring it to an end", said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight First Amendment Institute's executive director, in a statement.

Judge Buchwald said that the answer to both the questions was no.

In the lawsuit, the seven individual plaintiffs, including a University of Maryland professor, a Texas police officer and a NY comic, said they were blocked from the @realDonaldTrumpaccount after posting tweets critical of his policies. He has blocked many critics from his account, which prevents them from directly responding to his tweets.

These claimants can not view Trumps tweets, reply to them or see the comments thread underneath them.

"Under Buchwald's ruling, Twitter remains free to block users from its platform, on its own terms, without running afoul of the First Amendment".

The judge noted that another defendant, Daniel Scavino - the White House's social media director and an assistant to the president - can unblock those followers without the president needing to do it himself.

Justice Department lawyers had argued it was Trump's prerogative to block followers, no different from the president deciding in a room filled with people not to listen to some.

This case is one of the first to tackle the thorny issues raised by the new technology, and Judge Buchwald's ruling applies to all public officials who use their accounts to disseminate information relevant to the public interest.

In reaching her conclusion, the judge dismissed a range of counterarguments put forward by Trump's legal team, including that the account was set up in 2009 - long before he became president - by pointing out that if a military base was decommissioned and turned into a public park, or a private airport turned into a public one, then the current usage would be the relevant one to consider.

In what seems to us like the weakest part of the decision, Buchwald concludes that the "interactive space" around Trump's tweets qualifies under this standard.

"We receive reports about how governmental officials manipulate social media comments to exclude opposing views to create the impression that hotly contested policies are not contested at all", EFF said on Twitter after the case was filed. "If all goes well, Hollywood will immortalize him as an evildoer who got his comeuppance". The Trump administration has not decided yet whether Trump will unblock his critics on Twitter as directed by Buchwald or whether it will appeal the ruling, the New YorkTimesreported.

However, if you click on a Donald Trump tweet, you'll see a long list of replies to that tweet listed underneath.

Could this impact Twitter users in Australia? In last year's ruling about Facebook blocking, the judge held that public officials could do a certain amount of content moderation, provided that it was done in a content-neutral manner.

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